asian

Moo Shu Vegetables

March 12, 2014 by Erica

Moo Shu Vegetables

So you guys know I have been on a kick of recreating my old favorite meaty Asian dishes with vegetables. We’ve had Cauliflower Coconut Masala and Asian Orange Cauliflower… and now, one without cauliflower! I bet you didn’t think I had it in me. But yes, today we have a vegetarian version of the Chinese takeout classic: Moo Shu Vegetables!

I have fond childhood memories of moo shu pork. Whenever my parents ordered Chinese food, we’d beg them for moo shu, but not because we liked the filling – we LOVED the pancakes. (Anyone else?!) I definitely remember rolling up the pancakes and eating them plain – no filling required. My parents would complain that we needed to save some pancakes to actually eat with the filling. {Scoff} Adults.

So naturally when recreating them, I went the opposite direction. Not only am I now all about the moo shu filling, but I stuffed it in flour tortillas out of pure laziness.

Oops.

Don’t tell.

Or actually, we’ll just blame it on those dang kids who ate all the pancakes.

Moo Shu Vegetables

Turns out? In my adult life, moo shu vegetables are pretty darn delicious, no matter how you serve them.

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Asian Orange Cauliflower

February 12, 2014 by Erica

Asian Orange Cauliflower

I usually reserve words like “insane,” “unreal,” and “magical” for creations like chocolate pecan butter, ice cream with bourbon in it, chocolate peanut butter cookies, etc. But today I’m about to use those words to describe a cauliflower dish… oh yes I am.

I recently made the discovery that cauliflower can be used in place of meat in all your old favorite Asian dishes. I tried it out first with the cauliflower coconut masala, and it was a magical. Also, though I came up with the idea independently, I totally wasn’t the first person to do so. That’s what happens when you have a unique idea in the year 2014… you Google it and realize that 2.1 million other people had the same idea, starting about 1000 years ago. Sigh.

Then I realized that, sure, cauliflower might be a typical component of Indian dishes, but it also works in practically everything else, too. Up until now I had considered tofu as the most logical vegetarian substitute. And I don’t always love the texture of tofu, so I pushed most of the chicken- and beef-based Asian recipes I knew to the back of my mind.

But cauliflower opens everything back up again, and with a new and improved texture. Can I get an amen from my fellow veggie texture lovers?

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Cauliflower Coconut Masala

January 22, 2014 by Erica

Cauliflower Coconut Masala

One of my favorite parts of blogging is that I get to connect with so many lovely people every day. Lovely, like-mind, food-loving people like you! The food blogging community really is the best. It was a quite unexpected bonus for me when I started blogging – I had no idea how much I’d love that part of it.

One of my great food-blogging friends is Julia at The Roasted Root. Have you checked out her beautiful blog? Julia always has something clever to say, and something delicious to feed you. Something delicious and sneakily healthy, I might add. She’s pretty much the best.

So I was thrilled when Julia asked me to be one of a series of guest posts on her blog. And today is the day! I’m posting over on The Roasted Root, hijacking Julia’s space to talk about Indian food.

It’s been a while since I made you any curry or the like, so I’m pretty excited about this one. Chicken tikka masala has always been my favorite Indian dish, and I have fond memories of ordering it for takeout along with a big side of fluffy naan. And when I recently decided to make masala with cauliflower and coconut milk instead of the ol’ chicken and cream… whoa. Worlds collided. This Cauliflower Coconut Masala was born.

Head over to The Roasted Root to check out the recipe!

Soba Noodles with Miso-Scallion Dressing

December 11, 2013 by Erica

Soba Noodles with Miso-Scallion Dressing

I’m going to do that thing again where I talk about the weekend on a Wednesday! Partially because I’m in denial that we’re in the middle of the workweek. And partially because my weekend just ended – we were in Sacramento until Monday night so Nate could run the California International Marathon.

We left for the airport on Saturday morning, but before that, I had aggressive plans to cook and photograph several dishes. Hmm… can you guess how that turned out?

Soba Noodles with Miso-Scallion Dressing

Luckily, we made it to the airport on time. Not so luckily, I completely forgot the garnishes for these photos. Boo.

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Green Curry Stuffed Peppers

October 14, 2013 by Erica

Green Curry Stuffed Peppers

Hello, and happy Monday to you!

Some recipes I have a lot to say about; others, not so much. This is one of the latter. The big story about this recipe is that a version of it has been on my idea list for quite some time – about a year – and when I got a massive amount of green peppers in my CSA box, I decided to finally try it out. It would have been almost irresponsible not to, you know? So… I made it.

The end?

Green Curry Stuffed Peppers